If the company is in that bad a state, then throwing good taxpayer dollars into that black hole will only delay the inevitable.

"I think it is very risky," says Maryann Keller, a respected automotive analyst. A few years ago, in a stronger economy, the industry might have absorbed a body blow, but if GM were liquidated today, Keller says, it would take down much of the supplier base.

Are they not capable of making parts that stable car companies can use?